“High School Rapper” Criticized For Lack Of Fairness, Production Team Responds

On the March 10 broadcast of Mnet’s “High School Rapper,” the show’s contestants competed in a rap battle through teams based on the districts that they are from. The Seoul team faced off against the Gyeongin team while the Busan team faced off against the Gwangju team.

Viewers noticed that the format of the two rap battles was different and criticized the show for creating an uneven playing field that they believed clearly favored some contestants over others.

For example, in the rap battle between the Busan and Gwangju teams, the first round was a freestyle battle; however, Jo Wonwoo, the contestant competing for the Busan team, is already known to be extremely talented at freestyle. Viewers are, therefore, claiming that the rap battle was already tipped in favor of Jo Wonwoo.

The production team for “High School Rapper” has since responded to the criticism and said, “We tried our best to create a fair competition so the situation is regretful. It had always been part of the plan to not have the same missions for the two rap battles.”

The statement continued, “When we were deciding upon the rules for each rap battle, we first consulted with the mentors and the mentors consulted with the contestants so that everyone could be in agreement about what the missions would be. Regarding the freestyle round, we also thought that it would be more advantageous for one team but the Gwangju contestants told us that they wanted to do a freestyle round, which is how we came to create that mission. We are trying our very hardest to create an authentic program for viewers.”